Author's Guild Sues OpenAI Over Alleged Copyright Infringements in AI Training
Summary:
The Author's Guild in the United States has filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft-funded OpenAI for alleged misuse of copyrighted content in the training of its AI systems. The suit claims this misuse represents a harmful copyright infringement, undermining the livelihoods of authors who depend economically on these creative works. The Guild suggests alternatives such as using public domain resources or paying licensing fees for copyrighted works. This case comes amidst increasing discussions around AI and copyright law.
The Author's Guild, the largest and oldest association for authors in the U.S., has initiated a class-action suit against Microsoft-funded OpenAI on September 19, claiming the organization violated copyright laws by improperly using copyrighted content to train its AI systems. According to court records, the authors association is seeking legal remedy under the Copyright Act for what it terms a blatant and detrimental violation of copyrights in published fictional works. The suit contends that OpenAI illegitimately utilized these works by incorporating them as they are into expansive linguistic models without obtaining consent or providing compensation. These programs form the backbone of the defendants' extensive emerging business, and these programs are rooted in theft on a colossal scale, the Guild claims.
The Author’s Guild, representing a group of professional fiction authors, stated that the creative output of these authors stems from their unique thinking and literary creativity. Therefore, given the income of these authors is largely sourced from these creative works, the language models threaten authors' financial survival. The Guild posited that OpenAI could have trained their AI models with public domain resources, or even paid licensing fees for using any copyrighted materials. "What defendants should not do is try to bypass the Copyright Act completely to advance their lucrative professional activities, casually accessing whatever databank of fairly recent books they can find, without obtaining legal permission," the Guild declared.
On September 11, the Guild shared an article on Platform X that provides suggestions for authors on how to safeguard their work from AI-based web crawlers, highlighting the fact that authors can obstruct OpenAI's web crawler from screening their websites, offering actionable tips for authors wishing to better protect their work from AI threats. The Guild prominently features a link on its profile detailing its stance on AI technology and its advocacy work in this area.
This legal action by the Author’s Guild follows similar changes in another lawsuit against Meta and OpenAI, with both companies now requesting that the courts dismiss the accusations related to the unlawful usage of copyrighted content for training their AI models, a case that was initiated by author Sarah Silverman and others in July. In August, the Copyright Office in the U.S. endorsed a request for public opinion on matters related to AI content creation and the potential policy considerations for content that mimics human-created outputs. Prior to this, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell determined that creations produced solely by AI are not eligible for copyright protection.
Published At
9/20/2023 1:29:24 PM
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